Hard Luck
Thumel and Greenmayne stared into the vast space in front of them. There was no sign of the Valerians. "Looks easy enough," Greenmayne said confidently. "There are sandstorms, though," his friend warned. Greenmayne shrugged and cast around for the other members of the group. "Wonder how that human will survive this." Thumel chuckled. "Doesn't make a difference to us." To his surprise, Greenmayne, hater-of-mankind, didn't laugh. "You forget that I am part-human." Thumel sighed. "I'm afraid I can't help much." A moment of silence passed through the plains. There wasn't so much as a slight breeze in the valley. "You could grab hold of me, you know?" Greenmayne scoffed. "And what? Drag the both of us to death?" "Come on, have a little faith." Greenmayne disregarded his friend's words. "At least there's a slight chance that I'll stick this through his heart." He raised a wooden spear. They were lucky they had Geoffrey with them. Those bags of silver though... "Ready?" someone shouted from behind. The rest were back. They stood in a line and faced the emptiness together. "This is it," Vinctus said. Rochefort squinted into the distance. "According to the wind speed now, the sandstorm will occur approximately seven minutes from now and that would place us right about the middle of the valley - " He paused and looked at each member in turn. " - if we keep running straight, we'll outrun the storm in two minutes. But we have to keep running." His glance lingered on Greenmayne and Frederick. Great, thought Greenmayne, now it's the two humans against the mighty Beastkin. "Okay!" shouted Vinctus, "We've talked about this! It's only fifteen minutes of pain for a lifetime of peace and happiness!" He looked at Greenmayne severely. Greenmayne flinched a little, but stood his ground. The lion hadn't placed complete trust in him since the first day. Vinctus seemed satisfied. The clopping of hoofs on the ground and the neighing of horses held the team's attention for a moment. It was a silent moment, but no one looked in the direction of the sound. They were staring ahead into the yellowish-brown wilderness. They had to win. "Go!" Greenmayne didn't even register who gave them the signal to begin, but like the rest, he was off. Within a few paces, it was evident that the Valerians were gaining more ground with each strike of the hoof, but the sandstorm... Just as he thought it, the wind rose, bringing billions of sand particles with it. Greenmayne squeezed his eyes shut and ran, thinking only of the gemstones lying somewhere in front of him. He felt his legs burning and chanced a glance around. The rest of the team were ahead. "Damn it," he cursed his human blood. If he were full Demon, he might have flown and stayed out of the nonsense. The sand had begun attacking his eyes. He groaned and stumbled, trying to push ahead. "GREENMAYNE!" Thumel's voice called out. He opened his mouth, but realised that it was the worst thing he could do in that situation. He lay belly-flat on the ground, hoping against hope that the storm would leave him unscathed. It was then that he saw the red gleam in the sand. He reached out instinctively, but missed it by inches. Was it me or did it move? he thought, puzzled. There were more and more gleams now, surrounding him on all sides. Greenmayne forgot all about the expedition. Everything he'd wanted was in front of his eyes. "Give me..." he mouthed, reaching out to grasp anything within his reach. They are definitely moving, he thought as he missed his sixth gemstone. It was then that he remembered the wooden spear he'd brought along for protection...and other purposes. Right, he thought, if I can't catch it, I'll stay it. He stabbed down hard at the closest gem. He struck something fleshy and a red bloom was beginning to spread. "Shit!" he mumbled, trying to keep an eye out for the moving gems while fighting against the wicked grains of sand. The animal struggled, then lay abruptly still. Greenmayne crawled over, placing his hand on the cold, hard stone on its body. There was no time for maniacal laughters. He plucked the spear from the animal's body and ran its sharp point round the gem. He'd almost got it out when something collided into him. "Greenmayne!" Thumel breathed, pulling at his jerkin. "Let's go!" "Wai-" Greenmayne tried to say, but Thumel had pulled him away from his kill, away from his spear, away from his treasure. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" For a moment, the two factions paused in their tracks and turned around to identify the source of the chilling cry. However, seeing nothing, they returned to their race.